Howell Baum

Howell Baum is a Professor in the Urban Studies and Planning program. Baum has completed a historical study of Baltimore school desegregation entitled Brown in Baltimore: School Desegregation and the Limits of Liberalism. The book analyzes how liberalism hinders knowing and talking about race and limits possibilities of racial integration. He has been studying the psychological dynamics of race relations. He is beginning research on planning and the problem of evil, looking at how conventional views of rationality fail to understand and deal with normal human destructive impulses.

Among his research interests are:

Planning theory and planning practice

Liberalism: its influence on public policy, its failure in comprehending race

American race relations and racial reconciliation

History of Baltimore school desegregation

School reform

Community organizing and community planning

Organizational behavior and bureaucracy

Psychology of planning and decision making

Evil: why people do it, how liberal rationalism fails to comprehend and deal with it